Because you are on
this website I’ll assume that at some point you’ve read inspiring stories of
some of the world’s most successful people.
In some cases, you may
have been motivated or surprised to learn that more often than not, these
game-changers, to some extent, failed in their school careers.
Big names like Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,
Michael Dell, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison (the list goes on) are all
part of the club.
For a number of reasons, their choice to leave
school sparked progress that led to unparalleled success in their chosen field.
This trend has been
glamorized in recent years; where graduating school and university have become
the norm, the stories of maverick business tycoons have sparked a
non-conformist attitude in young entrepreneurs.
There’s an ongoing
debate among solopreneurs as to whether college is worth it.
Through my own experience and researching
successful ‘drop outs’, I’ve gathered the four main reasons why school isn’t a
perfect fit for entrepreneurs:
1 All theory, no action
Granted, schools have
gotten better at this. But for the most part, the little practical learning
provided is still done in a heavily controlled environment.
Alan Sugar once said ‘you
can’t learn business out of a book. The most important thing is what experience
you’ve amassed.’
The more real world
action you take, the wiser you become and the more opportunities there are for
you. A controlled learning environment simply doesn’t support that.
Education is mainly
based around theory. By definition, you learn the ‘principles on
which the practice of an activity is based.’ The schooling method is
to learn for years and years, then when you finally reach adulthood, implement.
By that time, due to
disinterest and the fact you probably crammed for every exam, you would have
forgotten most of what you learnt.
“A young man is a theory;
an old man is a fact.” – E. W. Howe
The proper way is to
put theory into practice as you learn. You wouldn’t
learn the piano or guitar without playing it! Its simple trial and error review
and repeat.
That’s what successful
people do; they try something and if it fails they learn from it. Which is
probably why Steve Jobs ‘failed’ at elementary school?
In his words, ‘school
was at fault for trying to make me memorize stupid stuff rather than
stimulating me.’ When you have a desire to create something or make a
difference, there is no time for debating, analyzing and pondering.
2. Failure is based
on test results
During our time at
school and university, our success is based on test results. Due to this, the
level and quality of your qualifications can have a huge impact on your career,
if you choose the employee route.
The mixture of test
results and subsequent qualifications is a recipe for self-doubt and
dissatisfaction. Independent and driven individuals refuse to be scared into
going down a path they are not passionate just because it’s the ‘realistic’
option.
Instead they see
failure as a positive thing, a tool for learning and analyzing to improve their
methods.
If Thomas Edison was
given the task of creating the lightbulb as a school project rather than out of
his own initiative, would he have tried so many times, or even have been
allowed to keep trying after so many failed attempts?
The saying ‘don’t
judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree’ springs to mind. School
determines students’ success in a narrow range of abilities, but successful
people judge themselves on their ability to persevere in doing what they love,
not what they’re told to do.
3. School creates
followers, not leaders
School should be a
platform for students to discover and learn about their passions in order to
create high performing individuals, and ultimately, leaders. It’s currently a
platform to create followers (in other words, employees).
In fact, when I
visited multiple business school open days, their selling points were the
percentage of students who were employed after they’d graduated. Imagine that,
an entrepreneurship course designed to put students into employment?!
Successful people
develop at a young age into independent learners because school cannot
stimulate their curiosity. Thomas Edison was seen as hyperactive and prone to
distraction at school, deemed as ‘difficult.’
He went on to be home-schooled and very
quickly developed a ‘voracious appetite for knowledge… a process for
self-education and learning independently.’
“Leaders spend 5% of
their time on the problem & 95% of their time on the solution. Get over it
& crush it!” – Tony Robbins
You see, leaders seek knowledge to fuel their ambition.
They do not bode well being fed selective information. Steve Jobs is a perfect
example of this, as explained by the Dean of students at his university: ‘He
refused to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine
everything himself.’
Followers are people
who accept what they are told and do what they are told to do. Leaders, like
Steve, develop their own opinions and use them to influence others.
4. They don’t have
something to prove
Successful people never act on what is expected of them. They
act on what they believe in and on what they are passionate about. Social
ladders and school’s expectations can force a student into becoming someone
they’re not. Successful people know exactly who they are and what they want.
In his biography,
Richard Branson states that in his school, ‘your reputation – and ability to
avoid being picked on – was helped enormously by your ability to score a goal.’
He was side-lined
because he couldn’t play sport and wasn’t academic.
The pressure to submit
to social norms is likely to create average performers because students tend to
submit to school rules and their peers despite their beliefs, in order to be
accepted. This hinders them from releasing their full potential.
In a letter to his
father, he wrote ‘anything I do in life I want to do well and not
half-heartedly.’ He pursued what he was passionate about despite what
was expected of him.
That kind of behavior is how individuals defy
what is accepted and change the world.
Source: http://addicted2success.com/
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